Fairy's trip

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Our latest trip was only a weekend adventure, but it is amazing how much you can fit in to a couple of days. Fairy is the Chinese wife of a B.C. teacher. She runs a small shop with a variety of services: travel guide, massages, trinkets, as well as funding several charities in the region. She is quite an amazing woman. We signed up for a trip with her in october which turned out to be much more than we planned on. Our trip pictures are on two entries - the first one to the village and the second to the apple farm and hot spring resort. The village is where she spent 6 years with her mom and brother during the 1960's when Chairman Mao decided to 're-educate' any one with money, culture or an education, by taking their homes and possessions and sending them to work on farms or in factories. The village that Fairy and her mom were sent to is about 3 hours by car, but pretty far when you have no transportation and basically no roads. She still keeps in regular contact with the people in the village, whom they remain close friends with after these many years.

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Photos

first house
This house belonged to the people that first befriended Fairy and her mom when they came to the village. The villagers were told that they were bad and not to speak to them or help them in any way. Fairy's family under went this 'retraining' because her grandfather had at one time been a land owner. Her dad was sent to work in factory several hours away, while they spent 6 years in this village. He would ride his bike to visit them once a month - I think she said it took about 10-12 hours and he only had a weekend.

her village friends
The couple still lived in the same house. Fairy comes back to visit them on a regular basis. We felt very honoured to have been their guests.

the kitchen
The kitchen is the room that opens to the outside. Fuel is loaded in the small opening at the bottom of the brick stove. Under the round lid is lunch being cooked. Some have 2 of these, others one. The stove shares a wall with the bedroom/living area on the other side, heating that area as well.

the bedroom
This bed is the main furniture in the second room. It is a sheet of plywood on concrete, covered by a piece of plastic. Everyone sleeps in the same bed. The rest of the room had a wardrobe(next picture), fridge, tv, water cooler, and a dresser.

bedroom/living area
all the houses have electricty and running water, it is odd to see televisions in these small houses.

our group
this was the four from our tour group plus the owners of the house. Megan, third from th left is a woman I work with and spend some time with. Julia, the one next to Rick, is the librarian on the girls campus.

the yard
The yard had many animals, pigs, chickens, geese. The corn had been recently picked and cobs were stacked and stored in every imaginable nook and cranny. What wasn't ground for cornmeal is kept for fuel in the winter - stalks and cobs.

Fairy
This is the house that Fairy lived in. It has had a few cosmetic changes, new roof, but the same inside. She, her mom and younger brother who was born while they were there (remember, dad visited once a month!) lived here.

kitchen
This stove, in the second house we visited, had a larger stove, with two cooking areas (don't know what this is called!)

bedrooms
This house was a bit bigger and had two beds in it. Same layout though.

third house
The last place we visited was to drop off a package of insulin for the boy in this picture. He is 15 and recently diagnosed with diabetes. They are very poor and can't afford any medication, so he would not survive except that Fairy found out about him and is supporting him through her charity work. She brings his insulin once a month. This house was very similar to the others, except for the blind grandma who sat in one of the hard with a plastic cover. It was almost funny to see her- she was tiny and wizened and totally surrounded by corn in her bed!

Can't leave without a gift
When we went to leave the boy's house the mom made sure we given a bag full of baked sweet potatoes to take with us.

rice fields
Rice was just being harvested. What back breaking labour. All the rice is cut and carried by the villagers. They stack it everywhere you can imagine (except where the corn is!) to dry for a couple of weeks. Then it is put through a machine - the village owns one and everyone shares it, to shake the kernels off. It is stored, ground or then sold. Megan wanted to come back and help them harvest the rice, but that didn't happen. Would have been an interesting experience.

a local school
Fairy took us to a local school. Unfortunately it was Saturday so there were no students, but the principal showed us around. This is the teacher's workroom/principal's office. There are 3-4 rooms and goes from1-6.

Comments

[Lynn]

Greetings from PR
Hi Gail and Rick, Funny, I was just thinking of you guys when low and behold I get this e-mail from you. Thanks for sharing your trip. It looks like you guys are really learning a lot about China and its people. Keep on sending your blog, it is very interesting. Sure wish we were still studying China, these pictures and comments are so informative. Take care and stay in touch!